Tips on changing my Substrate.

[NapoliNewJersey]

Next week I wanted to change my sand/crushed coral to all sand. I'm also moving the location of my tank to across the room. Gonna be a fun day.

I have a 24 gallon rubbermaid container for rock and water then I have four 5 gallon buckets for just water. I also have two 1 gallon containers for Corals.

1- What's the best way to remove all the snails/hermits/crabs/fish/corals?
2- Should I keep livestock with the Live rock or just in water buckets?
3- How should I keep the corals?
4- Is 100lbs of sand too much or too little for a 55 gallon?

[Reefscape]

moving the snails and hermits etc can be a meticulous job indeed, but one which does need doing to save them from being crushed when the live rock is moved to another container....when i moved mine, i just put the snails in a little tub with water, and hermits in another..For them, i just used plastic food containers...

Livestock, if your signiture is up to date with fish, then i would jsut put the livestock in a bucket together.

Corals can be the tricky part and depends who easily you can get them off the live rock...or even remove the live rock to teh rubber maid and place in the in a way that the corals are all on top so they dont get squashed..all these fish, coral and invert are not going to be in the containers for the long as your only moving across the room and laying a new sand bed.

Sand, i usually work around 1lb per gallon for and average depth sand bed..

hope that helps and see what other peoples suggestions are...

Niko

[NapoliNewJersey]

Great Niko .... your answer was perfect. Thank you.

[Germanman]

Niko nailed it just wanted to wish u good luck!:dance2:

[NapoliNewJersey]

Thanks guys. .... I just finished cleaning up.

I actually started a Reef Log as I re-setup the tank. Photos by the end of the week. I even screwed my powerstrip/timers into the wall, making it look a little more neat. Also added about 15 lbs of LR.

Everything went well. The water is very cloudy still, but getting better every hour.

Since the water is cloudy I can set my rocks the way I want them yet. And the corals are not in there final place.

I'll see what the water looks like tomorrow and finish up. Thanks again guys. I wouldn't have attempted it without knowing I had this site as a backup incase something went wrong.

I'm going to start to build my Sump/Fuge this week or next and I'll be asking for help i'm sure. Can't wait.... by the time I'm completly set up with this tank, it will be time to upgrade to a 120gallon.

Anyway thanks and photos soon.

[Germanman]

cool!:dance:

[jayghmi]

Update? I will be doing the same thing in about 2 months (new wood floor) - did it all turn out all right?

By the way, if you remove the substrate and put in a new sand bed - what about an amonia spike for the loss of the bacteria in the old stuff?

[NapoliNewJersey]

Not sure about a spike but everything turned out well. I did a test today and the results of the test were:

PH 8.3
Amm 0
Trites 0
Trates 15
Phos 0
SG 1.023

Other then the cloudy *** water, everything was really good.

[Germanman]

looks good! get thous trates below 10 if u can zero is better though:)

[Reefscape]

Glad it all went smoothly....

Niko

[NapoliNewJersey]

looks good! get thous trates below 10 if u can zero is better though:)


Yeah I'm doing 10% water changes every 3-4 days. They were at 40ppm and they are going down they are at 15-20ppm after about 3 changes. I'm getting 5 Blue/Green Chromis' in a couple of weeks and I want to make sure my Trates are down before I do. I'm going to post in another thread the fish I plan to buy. I wanted to know if they are ok for my 55 gallon and if they would all get along.

Thanks again guys. Everyone said Saltwater is hard but with a team of experts at my disposal, it couldn't be easier. Thanks.

[JDanneker]

I will need to perform this task eventually. Except I was going to remove the large pieces of LR and put in tubs. The plan is to do half of my 72 gallon tank at a time, with about 3 weeks in between. I was going to leave my live stock (2- Clowns, 2 - PJ Cardinals, 1- Blue Hippo Tang and 1- Coral Beauty Angel plus a number of hermits & snails, 2 - emerald crabs and 2 - cleaner shrimp. I have a number of corals as well) in the tank and turn off the power heads and filters for a few hours.

I was hoping this would help to "seed" the new sand before I removed all of it.

Any suggestions to this plan would be appreciated.

Thanks, Jeff

[Reefscape]

JDanneker -- I will need to perform this task eventually. Except I was going to remove the large pieces of LR and put in tubs. The plan is to do half of my 72 gallon tank at a time, with about 3 weeks in between. I was going to leave my live stock (2- Clowns, 2 - PJ Cardinals, 1- Blue Hippo Tang and 1- Coral Beauty Angel plus a number of hermits & snails, 2 - emerald crabs and 2 - cleaner shrimp. I have a number of corals as well) in the tank and turn off the power heads and filters for a few hours.

I was hoping this would help to "seed" the new sand before I removed all of it.

Any suggestions to this plan would be appreciated.

Thanks, Jeff

Its always a good idea for a tank that is already established, to not change all the substrate at the same time...i usually recomend doing it in thirds..keeps potential water parameter spikes to a minimum..

Niko

[Catpicklesdog]

^^ I agree. I just removed about 2/3 inches of sand from my tank which caused a huge ammonia spike!!

[JDanneker]

Thanks for the input, I'll go in thirds with about 3 weeks in between.